>> next on booktv, brad meltzer talks about the research he did on the fifth assassin. and it's about 40 minutes. >> so, a couple -- let me count it -- 14 days ago, in new york city, we broke the guinness world record for most secret

decoder rings used in one place. that is the nerdiest thing you can do with your time ever. we had john from day -- daily show helped us. and nothing is better except being in a book store on a friday night. so i pity all of us, really, all of us. i want to say the most important thing of all, it will be the most important thing i'll say all night, and thank you. everything i say after that will be straight downtown hill, and some of the specific thank yous to the end. we're here too talk about "fifth assassin." and people ask me where the book came from. no one gets crazeyear e-mail than me. no one gets more proof that abraham lincoln is gay than me. the last time i was at this store for the inner circle, someone brought me the holy grail, okay? is that guy here?

is the -- i have to ask first. not here? then let's talk about him. here's what happens. i'm not dish promise you this is true. i was standing right of the and he comes top me early and says, brad, you want to see he holy grail? and he ah has crazy eyes and i'm like, you brought the holy grail to the barnes & noble, how i do not say yes? and in that aisle over there he takes out the holy grail if mean the holy grail. goes into this knapsack, pulls out the holy grail and size to me, drew read he be? and i'm like, i do. then he says you'll understand what this says, and he hands it to me and i take the holy grail and i look at it real close and i'm eyeing this old ancient'm pottery, and i'm looking at this thing, and he says, you see now, right? and i'm looking real close and there's not a single hebrew letter on the entire thing. not any letters. just like if you took the head

of a pin and went dot, dot, dot, that's all there is on there. he says you understand now, don't you? and i said, i understand completely. thank you very much. and i'm walking backwards and security right here. so, considering the last time i was here i got the holy grail, i am a little disappointed no one brought me the fountain of youth. you have it? okay. but sometimes the good news is, you get an amazing letter from someone, and a long-time reader of mine came to me and said, brad, i work at a museum in washington, dc that almost nobody knows about and you have to see what our collection has here. and i was like, listen, i'm really busy with the holy grail so tell me what you got. he said we have pieces of lincoln's skull. we have the bones of john wilkes booth, can we have the actual bullet that killed abraham lincoln. do you want to see it? yes, i want to see that. that a fun day at work. so i go to washington, dc and

they hasn't articles from the lincoln assassination and pieces from other ones as well. and when i'm there he opens a treasure and in the drawer are all these bones. almost like you took a skeleton and dumpedded the in a drawer. and i remember seeing a femur,, that's the only bone i know. and i have a doctor relative and he says there's an up na. and i said, what is that? and he says, pete president garfield, and then the takes out a jelly jar full of spongy material, and he said that's the brain of the man who shot president garfield. the second man to assassinate a president. any man who will give you a brain, invite him to your party. and his assistant opens up another drawer and takes out a leather -- a swatch of leather,

and i say what's the writing on this? and she says to me, oh, heat the tattoo. and i realize it's not leather. it's someone's skin. anyone that gives you a brain and skin, invite them to your party. and this museum, the national human of health -- national museum of health and medicine, and it was an old army facility and if you got shot in the civil war and you died, they would saw off your arms' send it to the arm where research police and say, figure out why he died? so they kept sawing off body parts parts and sending it to this museum. eventually science moves forward and they realize the recent you're doing is not because of a vein in your arm, it's blood poisoning, an infection, and they now realize and say, we

gear together turn the research facility into a museum. and he said to me the smithsonian has dorothy's ruby red slippers, we got all the body parts and that's a party. when lincoln was shot, and they did the autopsy and took his brain out, the bullet fell from his brain, clinked into the sink, and that's how they found it. and they have all these items. when they assassins were killed, people loved the assassins in an odd creepy way. like saints and they wanted pieces of them soment they used to cut the lining of the coffins, hair, clothes, anything to open a piece of this assassin and that's what this museum holds. when i was there as he handed -- oops. i lost the thing -- as he handed me this piece of skin, i see also on the corner of the skin a red diamond, and the red diamond, like you see on a playing card, and we all see playing cards all the time.

this is how my brain works. every detail, when abraham lincoln was shot, almost every one of us cataloged -- they can tell you what john wilkes booth had in his pants pocket, what was inside his wallet and the contents of his wallet, the horse re rode off on, the name and color of the horse, next to ford's theater there was a bar and john wilkes booth before he shot abraham lincoln went into the bar and ordered a drink. they can tell you exactly what kind of drink he ordered. the only detail he is not known has to do with how john wilkes booth got past the white house valet. he walks into ford theater, runs into the whitt white house valet, and at that moment, here it is, the moment in history, all this guy has to do is stop john wilkes booth and all of history changes. and at that moment, rather than stopping him, john wilkes booth hands this valet a card, and to this day the only detail that is not known about the lincoln assassination is what is on this

mysterious card, and some people say it's a calling card and some people say it's a business card. i remembered that actually business cards back then used to be playing cards. playing cards used to be blank on one side and you'd write your name on the other side. at university of pennsylvania you could use them to get into your class. that was your i.d., playing card blank on one side. so my brain goes like this. you have a playing card that i can link now to john wilkes booth. and now i have a playing card i can potentially link to the second assassin, because the skin may have been his or not. now i have a thread and i can weave the thread and pull it assassin to assassin and this where is the fiction takes over, and we all see symbols. hearts and diamonds and clubs and spades, but they're symbols and anyone something. a dollar bill has a pyramid with an eye. and they put it there for a row.

doesn't mean that the free mace sons there are to eat your babies and kill you. but it does mean something. and it's the sam with playing cards, and if you want to know what hearts and diamonds and clubs and spades really stand for, you'll see it in the pages -- at least one theory in "the fifth assassin." i say what if a serial killer is recreating all the crimes of the presidential assassins from john wilkes booth to lee harvey oswald and they're all working together for the same cook credit cause and he wants to be in fifth assist sin -- assassin and the book begins. you can't make jokes about jews in virginia. you make a hanukkah joke and it dies right there i've been crazy obsessed with assassins, and

when you talk to the secret service and ask them about people who tried to kill the president, there's nothing the assassins have in common, every age range, old, young, rich, poor, everything in between. no rhyme or reason to it but if you look at the four who were successful, you start to see the overlap. and obviously because it's a smaller group, and you see the pattern. interestingly, all four were successly killed the president were meticulously neat. none of them do drugs. they barely drink, and also barely known as troublemakers until it happens where they pull the trigger. what's also interesting to me is they were all four men with a cause. and when a couple years ago the government brought together a bunch of futurists and study what is the biggest threat that's going to happen to our national security in what's the biggest threat to america? used to be russia or the bomb or china or whatever, and they figured out, ten and 20 years from now, the greatest threat to american security will be an individual or small group that

is determined to die for their cause, and you don't have to invoke 9/11 to see what the damage can be. when you look at assassins they kinded into hunters and howlers, and howlers make a lot of noise and call in bomb threats and say they're going to kill us, but they rarely take action. the hunters are very different. hunters plot and plan and execute. but here's what is fascinating. hunters have almost no interest in howling, howlers have almost no interest in hunting, if you look at the four assassins, all for of them are hunters and that mean the seek vet service would who i have so much respect for, took me to their train facility in maryland. means the person they're looking for is the person who they'll never see coming. right? that's a scary thought. and along with assassins -- the funniest part of -- always the funniest part of the assist sin is the guy who took me into his museum, who has all the body

parts, he was in the front row in want. and i'm like, here's the guy with the dead body parts, the brain and all this stuff. i introduce him and everybody claps and i give him a big hug and he whispers in my ear, i don't like hugging very much. and i'm like, that is the most awesome reaction. i want the guy who spends his day with body parts to hate hugging. he should have a "i hate hugging" shirt. i love the fact he is there, and we get to do that with him. the other part i game became obsessed with is presidents. and the fun part of the research for me is a couple years ago, i got a letter from former president clinton, writing about one of the books because someone sent him one of the books. and then i got one of the craziest, best fan letter is ever got from former president george h.w. bush, and he read one of my novels, the millionaires, ask asked if i would sign a copy of it.

i said, you're the leader of the free world you get a free book. whatever you want. you're the president. and very nice, has me out to houston. i spend some time with the bushes there, and barbara and george are the sweetest people. they spent the first half hour we were with them, it was president bush trying to convince my wife he invented the phrase "you the man." and that's a good joke. my wife said, did you know he invented the phrase -- i said he did not invent the phrase pow you the men." but i don't know. he's the president. but i got to ask president bush questions about the white house and his time there, and i write fiction. i can make up anything i want. but we all know that there are only a few people on this planet who know what it's like to live in the white house and know that someone out there is trying to kill you. and that is amazing. so i said, are you scared, sir? were you scared at that moment?

and he was like, not confused by the question but almost like an odd question, like he never heard it before. he was like, no. that's not the right word. and i said, were you scared when this or that happened, and i asked him to describe it and he said, we had a lot of tense. bus scared like that -- it wasn't in the vocabulary, and as i thought about it, it made perfect sense, because it's like that guy who is a construction worker and works though top of the skyscraper on the overage the i-beam, for that person being that high up all day long, the fear of heights disappear. it's no longer part of the job. and we talk about what the assassins have in common, u.s. presidents have things in common, too. when you're surrounded by the secret service every day and get these reports every day, eventually that has to disappear. that fear that you would feel, just becomes part of the job, and that's a good thing to me, so from obama to bush or anyone before or after, that's a good thing. that fear does disappear, and

i'm not sure i would do much better, but the details you see about presidents in this book are based on my interactions with bush and what i saw there and how he reacted to that. so when you see the president reacted to his assassin here, it's better to -- we all know there's nothing easier to write about than a president, yes, mr. passport, no, mr. president. it's a terrible scene but when you feel it with redeal tails, fiction is best when it has one foot in reality. and the place we got explore, got to do camp david. i had never been there before, and i didn't know what camp david was. i knew the camp david accords. but what is this place that they go and do this? sign accords there all day? i found out that camp david has security that is better than the white house. what is going on there that they have better security than how to white house? marines and secret service. double time it's amazing. and the park guys are out there.

and presidents can use it -- it's really their second home, their getaway place, and what is interesting is they can skeet shoot and play golf and bowl go swimming but here's the best perk. no press allowed. you can allow them if you want but no press allowed. and when one of the secret service guys toll me when president clinton actually first took office, they said you can go to camp david and he said we have bad allergies and he said that noh press allowed and he said his allergies were cured. i don't blame him go ahead and be by yourself. one of the best things we found is there's actually a hidden tunnel that runs below camp david, and we changeded the security protocols in there but you ago see where the tunnel starts and what is underground and where i it comes out, and i won't ruin chapter 97 but when you read the book you'll see where the tunnel comes out, and i love we get to do that. what i whatnot to do -- because i promise today take questions.

let's see where we good. you can ask about decoded. you can ask about comics, about novels, you asking about open heart surgery, i write fiction. i'll make up an answer, and c-span is here so they just want to make sure if you have a question, please take the microphone. there's one question up here. >> hi, mr. meltzer. big decoded fan. >> i'm a big decoded fan, the biggest. i'm a bigger decoded fan than you. i call it brad meltzer's decoded. the best title of all-times. i said to my wife, what are we having for brad meltzer's dinner tonight? and she said you can sleep on brad meltzer's couch. >> my favorite episode would have to do with the fear of destiny you did a while back and i was wondering what your

thoughts were since time has passed on the spirit and where you think it might lie. >> the question is' the sphere of destiny and we did an end soap about the fear that -- when christ was being crucified, and the amazing part of the story, they say all these different leaders had thisster and used it to gain power, and napoleon and other people took this thing and the best part of the store was they adolph hitler wented it. and i want know what is so important at it. why does this guy want this thing? that's the fun of the story, and we had on that episode some theories on writ was and we had man who came on the show who contacted me -- the reason we did that episode is he contact met years ago about it. and told me i have a story you need to here about the sphere of destiny, and he worked for a

very powerful person who had -- a u.s. president, and his boss supposedly had stolen the sphere of destiny that hitler had and it's supposedly in a museum in europe and the museum is a fake one and the real one was taken by his boss, and again, in terms of where it is, some people say it's at a submarine that sunk. some people say that's guy has it. some people say it's still in a museum, which i don't believe. i think that one is fact. the vatican says they have it below the vatican, and the vatican will tell you they have it. what's amazing is that so many people put so much into the faith of their particular sphere. everyone things they have the selected sphere. as to where i think it is, obviously the vatican says they if it. my guy who came to us says he knows writ is. we tried to track down -- the one thing we left out of the show he told us where he kept and it we tried to find it but couldn't verify that part.

we verified all parts of the story but that was the one part we couldn't. but we don't want to say we know where it is unless we can prove where it is. but i'm actually now a little disappointed in stayed of getting the holy grail, nobody brought me me sphere of destiny, but if i knew where it was, i would be using it for my own evil power. but i don't know writ is. the vatican insists theirs is the one, and a lot of people say it's in a submarine that has been sunk, a german submarine that went down a long time ago. so maybe another episode we could do. >> other questions? get off that easy? this is usually the hard crowd. >> thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> about decodedy. do we stan with the new sewn and can you tease or talk about any mysteries you would like to go over on the show? >> the question is, do we get

season three or not? only in l.a. do they want to know, did you get picked up? that's it. virginia, they don't care. they don't know what a pickup is. i hate virginia. so, season three, we don't know yet. we just finished airing the two-hour special on the end of the world. the best part is we air the two-hour special on the end of the world in december, and the world is going to end, and i schedule my new novel in jam right? like that is marketing genius right there i was like, i know how this en. my favorite part is we had this guy, sweetheart, nice guy, who builds a bunker in wisconsin and takes abuse the underground bunk sore when the apocalypse hits he survives and the takes us into the bunker and here's my food and generateyear and everything that's going to keep me alive, and here, check it out, y'all, 42-inch flat screen, and he is like so psyched about his 42 -- and we're awful dead and burning in flames and the apocalypse is

upon us and he is like, don't worry, got the 42-inch screen costco had a deal and we're seat. me and lice i got a lot of dvds. i'm glad he's got it covered. so we're waiting to hear on season three but does beg the question about decoded. for sure one of the next projects will be the next book. the next book is actually a decoded book. we're going to do a countdown of the top ten conspiracies and see us counting down and doing pieces on all of them. the pock after that will be for those who read heroes for my son or heroes for my daughter, and we did stories like the wright brothers, everytime they went to fly the plane they would bring extra materials for multiple crashes so they knew they would fail and crash and rebuild and crash and rebuild, and that's why they took off, and i love that story. want my sons sons sons sons to .

i want everyone to know if you think being and have stubbornness, you can do anything. now we're going to do an illustrated version of those heroes. and so we're going to do ameliaaryhart, the shirts, and i'm abraham lincoln and do a loin of children's books for kid three to seven years old, and then a sequel to the fifth assassin. my next comic book project i will tell you, i'm going toll you about it -- it is tiny titans, a cartoon comic book for little kids and my daughter in the back of every comic book they actually print artwork by kids that write in artwork, and my daughter drew a picture of wonder girl and she said, dad, do you think they can get this in the come nick? and i was like, i don't know. and i'm like, i called dc comic and the fix is on, people. get my daughter's stuff on

there, please. so they put it in and she was so happy. she drew this most -- i know all of people thing their kids are the best artist, and she draws this amazing version of wonder girl, and so they did as a favor back, can you do a three-page story for us with a character, you can pick a character we're going to do, and will you do three pages, and i said i can do it if i'm going to do it with my four-year-old so here's the story that its going to appear. he picked a polar bear who rides a unicycle. just go with it. and i said to him you tell me what the polar bear is going to say and i'll write around you. he says, we are going to fight with light sabers. and my character says, i think we're going to have some trademark issues ear, and he says ex-we're going to fight the trademark issues with light sabres, and i'm like, i don't think you understand what

treadmark issues are, and i say to him, why are we fighting in he says because we're evil. i said are you always evil in he says, yes, i says, are you evil on your barrettday? he saysa, i said are you evil on hanukkah and criminal and he says, yes, no, and then the end of it is just him yelling over and over again, and then chewbacca comes comes and then , and i'm going, that's a trademark issue and that's the entire story. so i love the fact we did this and that will be the next comic book, and the fifth assassin sequel. saw hand up here. >> hello. >> hi there. >> so, it sounds like you're really busy, and to me -- >> is this a date? >> yeah. i was just wondering how do you find time for everything?

writing. as a hopeful writer myself. how do you have the time to write with your family and events. >> it's actually a very important question. time management is obviously -- you can pen your entire life doing work and you can spend your entire life living your life and there's a difference and this is actually the first novel i wrote since my parents passed away, and if i learn anything -- when you write a novel, all the things you plan to put in the book and you know you're going to who the murder is and the ending, and then there's the things you don't plan on that go in there, and one of the things that went in here as i finished the first draft, i looked at the book and was like what is this book about? and i knew the theme i put in there -- finished the first draft and i was like, the main character is growing up. or the course he is, my parents are both gone. that's what i'm doing itch had no choice to make this book

about growing up and if if learned anything about the love my parents gave me it was the value of the time with your family. so i may do different projects but i try never to work on the weekend, obviously i if have a speech or something i have to but i try to never miss practices. die succeed in no. that's just the thing. those are where the priorities lie and it means i don't write a book a year. if i wanted to write other book as user i wouldn't see my kids or wife as much, and i like them, and i hope they like me. but there's a reason why i'm on the redeye right after i live here, after doing a five days of tour because tomorrow is baseball practice and i plan to be there. so i will sleep on the plane tonight. so i'm struggling like every other father out there but that's the most important part of it for me, and i absolutely learned that from my own parents, because my parents were insane. my mother was insane. my mom used to say at the dinner

table, i'd saw my own arm off for you. i'm like, mom, we're eating dinner. but that love is everything i am. her love for me is my strength and foundation, and that's where it comes from. that's the one lesson i have i'm sorry i can't produce more product but you got to spend time with your family. one more question. should be do two more questions? okay. in the front right here. have to use the mic. >> so you dropped a hint about the sequel to the fifth assassin. do you want to talk about that? >> i reveal the end of the fifth assassin in the sequel. no, i can't. but i am -- but to talk about it, i always knew that this book was not going to be one book long. i designed the problems to last multi books. that was always the goal without question. and eye had over and over done, here's the tenth justice, has a problem, solve the problem, the first council, the problem, goes

on. i used to think if you dade singh quell you were selling out. it was a bad word to me because -- and what i realized is sometimes sequels are awful. if you just write them because you ran out of ideas it's awful. but the best ones and the best long form stories are the ones that actually do tell the longer tale and it takes up more complex problems to make it weave over multiple books, and and i realized i wasn't creating hard enough problems for my characters in terms of growth that would feed more than one book, and i was thinking the problem was the problem in front of them and the quote-unquote bad guy, but the best gad guy you'll ever fight is against yourself, always. and where what you're seeing in niche each book is a battle he is fighting within himself and that is not only the hardest battle bust the most important bat well fight because we make the same mistakes over and over until we solve them and our life's journey is to how figure out how to stop making the same

mistakes. one more hand. >> i realen video -- really enjoyed your youtube video on how to write your ohno bit wear, and also wanted to comment on the proposed new decoded season, and i was hoping you would possibly touch on stuff like fema cams. >> so two points. one about a youtube video, actually my ted talk about writing your obituary, and a couple years ago i worked to save the house where superman was created, and when a reporter for the wall street journal heard he said, brad, that's inner obituary. and i was like, thank you for so clearly contemplating my death. but it struck me, what's in my obituary? what's going to be there? what are they going to say about me? did i matter? was i important in did i make the world a better place? what's in my obituary, and i was so taken by that, i couldn't shake the question itch went --

i went back a year later to the reporter and said i want to hire you for a job. i want you to write my obituary, and he wrote it, and i won't tell you what is in it because that's the whole point of the talk but if you put in brad mels sir obituary, you'll see the talk on youtube, and it's about what i'm sure you're all asking, what's in your over bit wear, and we try to ain't if. if you think about who will remember you, you'll know how you will be remembered and when you look at the legacy we all leave, it's an important question you should ask yourself, and then in terms of fema camps, they one of the top suggestions we get. jfk is number one. people want to know. fema camps. they want to know all these different things over and over. and it's interesting because to me when we do the show, it's always a mix. not just my ideas, of course. it's a true collaboration and we have great producers who i see here tonight, and people from history channel who are amazing.

it is a true collaboration, also trying to get a good mix of things so it's not all things from revolutionary war time or just now but a real mix. but that's one that does come up over and over. it's amazing how much it's on the tips of people's tongues. i saw one other handthat was different and then i want to tell one last story. one last question or snow? one final story. a couple months ago, two months ago to be exact, i got to do a uso tour, and they brought me to skate good two other undisclosed military locations to entertain the troops. when we first went and assad you're going to meet the troops and spend time with them and do book signings i was so honored to be asked. you can't tell nip where you're going. this is kuwait, up disclosed military location, and then the made t-shirts for the tour and on the t-shirts were all the locations we were going and it was like, this this crack security in charge of our live?

so i can't tell you where i went unless i'm wearing that t-shirt and then you'll see where we went. but obviously honored to go over there. the best part is as we got there, the week before our tour, the international thriller writers sends five authors to entertain the troupes and we were the third group and weightright before we got there the troupes had just seen the ultimate champion guys, cage fighting. the dallas cowboy cheerleaders and then us. the guys with all the muscles, the women wearing nothing, and the authors who are here to read you. my friend was like, can you tape the audible sigh the moment you enter the room when they realize they're stuck with you. the reason i got involved with the uso is because ten years ago, right after 9/11, a guy on a submarine wrote me an e-mail and he said to me, i'm on other

scab marine and i can't tell you where i am but we don't have a big library bit with your book, the first counsel, and it's really bringing me peace and i want to say thank you, brad. and i was like that the nicest e-mail i ever got. this guy would take time from the middle of nowhere to think -- tank me. so ten years ago i called my publisher and said can i get 10,000 booked donated to the uso? and he said yes. and i thought that was ease and i and called another pusher, and another pusher, and over and over. we got ho 40,000 books donated to the uso. so now flash forward to two month others. ten years later. i'm there with the us0o, we're in kuwait, and one of the members of the military says, brad, i just want to thank you for all those books you donated all those years ago. and i say, how do you even know that? almost nobody knows about that. he said when i was station

inside iraq and afghanistan we used to see stacks of your books and all say courtesy of the uso so i knew you donated them. i said, no, no, you're getting it wrong. i'm here to thank you. you're messing it up. and i was so struck by that thank you that when i came home, a month and a half ago, i have to track down that soldier that, sailor on the original submarine and find where he is. so, i look at his e-mail address, his e-mail changed but i find a phone number and call him up. and i say, i don't know if you remember me, i'm brad mel melts sir but ten years ago you wrote me an e-mail from a submarine and i got me involved in the uso and now here i was going back, and he listens to the whole story and there's this odd creepy silence and you know when you're in a conversation and you know something is wrong. and i'm like, something has gone wrong here and i don't know what. did i offend system and i say to him, are you okay? it was such an odd silence, and he says not really.

i said why? he said automatic council days ago my mother died from breast cancer. what he doesn't know is my mother died from breast cancer, and at that moment i stopped and i say to him, i think i'm here to deliver a message to you, he said what's the message? and i said, when my mom passed away everyone tried to give me advice to help but nothing was helpful except this. our mothers never leave us. ever. and now he starts crying, and because he is crying, i'm all teared up, and as i'm sitting there, thinking i'm not one of those new age people who believes in the magic moment, but sometimes in life we feel so disconnected and sometimes we are profoundly connected. this guy hat taken me like -- and on a day he needs me more than any other and i was struck by that and he reason i tell you

the story, think about the power of a thank you and this is all i ask you. when you leave here and i sign the books and its dawn, think of the person who helped you in your life and you owe a thank you to. think of the teacher in high school or junior high school or college, that person who gave you your first real job, if your were selling something you made the first sale to, think of that person, and thank them. i promise you, you will not ever believe what will come from it. and the amazing part of the story is when i told that story last week in washington, dc,s i got the point where i said please thank the person you owe, handwin up and he said, i actually have to thank you, brad. he says for what you did for me on that submarine ten years ago, and it was him. it was the sailor from the submarine, came to the signing. so of course the whole room is in tears and he comes running up and i hug him, and in that moment he does not whisper in my

ear, don't like hugging very much. but die encourage you -- the reason i say that -- this is the most important thing will say to you is thank you. thank you for coming here tonight and for supporting. my want to thank leta, hosted me on my very first event near los angeles when we had nobody there it was couple people and us, and took a chance on me from the start. so i love you for that. [applause] >> i have family, friends from all walks of life here. from college, high school, and other places that come and people who work on decoded are here, so thank you. i have all my agents here and my manager is here and from wm and from lou and anna, and david, and ari, and phil and josh and all these amazing people who let me do what i do, and i never get to thank publicly so thank you for what you do, and all the people who come here, like you, there are people who come here every year, including -- without

that first help all those years ago in the white house i wouldn't be doing this. so, one last person i want to thank, because i never thank them publicly and want to show you what he look like, scott brick, please come up here. he doesn't even know i'm doing this. his like, oh, crap. when you do your book, one things they do, you do an audio book, and the first time i did my audio book i lippenned the tape and they hired some famous person who will not be named and it just didn't sound like me. i just sounded like -- estimated and it wasn't anything. then the second book they hired a woman and i was like, that doesn't sound like me. and then i heard this voice. >> i don't have anything to read. i don't know what to say. >> i was like, that baritone is awesome. so, this is actually the guy who does our audio books. he is my voice. so i never, ever, ever get to thank him. so thank you. i love you.

he just whispered in my ear, don't like hugging very much, but it sounded baritone and so macho. but thank you to everyone who came here tonight. i really do appreciate it. especially those who come back and support these books and those who watch decoded and take a chance on a book. i'll be signing books. i greatly appreciate it. [applause] >> a correspondent with the washington port and the awe or of the rise of mark oco -- marco rubio. what's the appeal of marco rubio? >> guest: well, he is a talented orator, and even more than that, he represents this opportunity to see how a hispanic politician

will play at the national level. he is a person who -- a people outside of the republican party are watching and gauging to get a sense of whether a latino politician can broaden his base outside of his own community. >> host: is he running for president? >> guest: well, who isn't when they get elected to the senate? he is clearly an ambitious person. he has risen very quickly, and he is established himself in a big hurry as a voice of consequence on major issues such as immigration, and there's no question that people within the political infrastructure of washington are looking to him as member who they would place on the shortest of short lists for the next time around. >> host: from your research and

what you know, was he -- how short-listed was he for mitt romney's veep pick? >> guest: it's a secret process. everyone who claims to know exactly what is going on, may not know exactly what is going on. but what was remarkable is that you saw mitt romney come out and say specifically that marco rubio was being vetted. that is not something we see very often, and i think it was a recognition from the romney campaign that they needed to reach out in some way to hispanic voters, and also to republicans who are not hispanic but have become fans of this legislator who has this fascinating personal story that i write about in the book. here's somebody whose family stretches back to a palm thatched hut in cuba, and in 100

years they have a grandson of the man who was born in that hut, now at the precipice of the very pinnacle of greatness in american politics, and it's an extraordinary story, and a lot of of people within the party recognized that. >> host: did the senator cooperate in your writing of this book? >> guest: he did not. but fortunately dozens and dozen of other people did, and i think it allowed me to not only get a certain of three-dimensional look at him from a little bit of an arm's distance, but also push me into all of this rich source material that i was able to come across in the national archives and other places, that told the story of his family's migration from cuba, a story that was more complicated and more nuanced than anyone new at the time that he was rising in florida

politics. >> host: how much does he control his image and his accessibility? >> guest: well, at certain point you lose control of your image because so many people are talking about you. he clearly is a person who has been able to establish a persona in the political realm and to establish it effectively. but when there are dozens and dozens of newspapers and magazines taking a crack at framing who you are and what you are, it's only inevitable that the image that the public gets to consume would take on more facets than maybe even he would like it to take on. >> host: the book, the rise of marco rubio.